1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a network of computers. More specifically, systems and methods for automatic repair and replacement of computing machines are disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
Many of today's more complex computing systems such as computer server systems often include numerous machines gathered in clusters such as a server farm. A server farm may be housed in a data center such as a collocation and may include thousands of computing machines. The machines are typically loaded with one or more server applications and allocated by use, e.g., front end, backend, etc. Over time, various machines may need to be modified, e.g., repaired, or replaced. As an example, each machine may have an average service life of approximately four years. Thus, in addition to the machines that are in active use, the server farm typically also includes various free or unassigned machines that are provided as possible replacements. These replacement machines typically have various configurations such that a replacement machine with the same or similar configuration as the out of service machine being replaced may be selected.
To modify or repair a machine or to replace an out of service machine with a replacement machine generally require the manual intervention by a system administrator. The system administrator may first attempt to identify the problem, fault or exception on the machine to determine whether to modify or repair the machine. If the fault should be resolved by replacing the machine, the system administrator may select a replacement machine from a database of replacement machines to select the machine with the same or similar configurations as the machine being replaced.
As such manual intervention is tedious, expensive, labor intensive and time consuming, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for automatically repairing or replacing a problem machine.